Chapter 5: Have You Ever Played Diablo III?

The light screen unfolding before Yuxing’s eyes was utterly extraordinary. On the deep blue display, simple lines outlined something resembling a menu interface—neat wireframes, virtual buttons for interaction. At a glance, it was straightforward enough; the clickable and tappable areas were immediately obvious.

Yuxing wasn’t sure if this was a cheat bestowed by transmigration, or a hidden function of the Light Key. After all, in this world where technology and magic coexisted within the lore of Taiga Ultraman, any sort of black technology could exist.

This thought alone made Yuxing want to complain. Who would’ve thought that in the supposedly science fiction world of Taiga Ultraman, there would exist a magical energy called the “Power of the Cosmos”? According to the setting, all living beings in the Taiga Universe resonate, to varying degrees, with the universe’s magic. For some, this resonance is especially strong, and these exceptional individuals can become true magicians.

Not the thirty-year-old single kind, but the kind of magician children imagine—throwing fireballs, flying on brooms, and so forth.

The so-called resonance with magic was, in fact, the ability to dream.

Despite the high-magic setting of the Taiga Universe, true magicians were exceedingly rare. The explanation given in the series was that most inhabitants of this universe had lost the ability to dream; they’d lost their magic and become mere drifting souls without ambition.

A person without dreams could not become a magician.

And how did this magic system tie into the plot of Taiga Ultraman? It was that the transformation device, the Taiga Spark, required “magic power” to activate. If one lost their dreams and became a listless soul, even with Taiga and his companions at their side and the Taiga Spark in hand, Yuxing would be unable to transform.

Of course, this plot device only appeared in a single episode and was never mentioned again.

Whatever this light screen was—black technology or a transmigration cheat—Yuxing was certain that it didn’t truly manifest in the surrounding space. The blue light cast no reflections on nearby objects; clearly, his optic nerves were receiving simulated signals directly from the Light Key.

Perhaps by touching the Light Key, the signal passed from tactile nerves to optic nerves. The moment he let go, the signal would be cut, and the screen would vanish.

He tapped his finger in the air, methodically pressing every interactive area on the interface, experimenting with taps, long presses, and swipes in every direction, so as not to overlook any detail.

After thoroughly exploring the interface, Yuxing had a rough idea of its workings...

He truly wanted to ask Tregear: was this a hidden function he’d designed for the Light Key? And also—

Had he played Diablo III?

The layout of the first menu was exactly like the Paragon interface from Diablo III!

And the second page was a skills menu, but with active skills removed—only passive skills could be set here. On the entire expansive screen, there were just four squares denoting “slots.” Except for the first square, the other three had large red X’s above them, indicating “locked.” Opening the first slot revealed a new page, with only a single, lonely, greyed-out square in the upper left, as if telling him: right now, you’re just a level-one rookie, not a single passive skill unlocked...

No matter how much Yuxing poked at these grey squares, there was no response.

But then, why was everything on the interface written in the script of the Land of Light?

This made Yuxing all the more certain that this system’s creator was indeed an Ultraman from the Land of Light! And that its intended user was also an Ultraman!

Gazing at those twisted, decorative-looking characters, Yuxing inwardly howled in frustration. Wasn’t Japanese supposed to be the lingua franca in the world of Ultraman? What was this script?

The only reason Yuxing recognized it as the script of the Land of Light was because he’d seen it before—he vaguely remembered coming across a correspondence chart between the Land of Light’s script and Japanese kana in a magazine about tokusatsu shows while on Earth. He hadn’t studied it carefully at the time, and now... he regretted it deeply.

And why was everything text—where were the icons? He scoured the entire system, but not a single icon could be found, giving him no clues to even hazard a guess.

He could almost picture the developer of this system leering maliciously, threatening: “You should be grateful I gave you a graphical interface at all—complain any more and I’ll give you a command line console instead.”

The interface layout was so reminiscent of Diablo III that Yuxing could only speculate that the four tabs represented Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility.

Each tab’s four items then were likely ability enhancement panels within those categories—such as movement speed, energy cap, life regeneration, resistance, and so on.

The only comfort was that the Land of Light also used Arabic numerals.

Arabic numerals—eternal and divine!

These familiar numbers further convinced him that this was, in all likelihood, the Diablo III interface. Those “+0.50%,” “+5,” “+1.00” figures matched the format and placement from Diablo III exactly.

Given this, Yuxing focused on the four tab labels. Since it was already known that the Land of Light’s script corresponded to Japanese kana, perhaps he could crack the code himself, just as Sherlock Holmes deciphered the Dancing Men cipher.

He’d use “Core,” “Offense,” “Defense,” and “Utility” as his starting point.

Additionally, he recalled from Diablo III that Offense included both Critical Hit Chance and Critical Hit Damage. If he could find the string that appeared twice on this page, he could pinpoint the word “Critical.” And since one increased the chance and the other the damage, the smaller increment would be the chance, the larger the damage. Thanks again to the Land of Light for using Arabic numerals—one enhancement was +0.1% per Paragon point, the other was +1%. Clearly, +0.1% was for chance, and +1% was for damage. Thus, the words for “chance” and “damage” could also be mapped.

Following this logic, Yuxing was confident he could reconstruct the Land of Light-to-kana conversion chart in short order.

Now came the next question: what was his current level, or Paragon level? How many assignable points did he have?

He glanced up at the four tabs—above them, a row of zeroes stared back at him.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Fine, on to the next question: How did one earn Paragon levels? Was it, as in Diablo III, by slaying monsters, clearing rifts, and completing bounties?